Spring seeding on track in P.A. and Melfort area

While most of the province is too wet to begin seeding, experts agree this won’t affect farmers in the Prince Albert and Melfort region.

Shannon Friesen with Saskatchewan Agriculture said farmers in this area are a few weeks away from getting started but on track with past seasons.

“Typically not until May is when we would expect seeding to maybe begin and that’s in an early year,” Friesen said.

There has been concern over a lack of precipitation this past winter but Friesen said soil moisture is adequate for the province. In fact, some areas even have excess moisture.

There will be more answers to this question when the Water Security Agency releases an updated report on Wednesday.

Friesen said some areas in the southern half of the province are a bit dry, but there is rain in the forecast this week for those areas.

Looking ahead to summer, some climatologists have been predicting a hot and dry summer for Saskatchewan which, of course, means prime conditions for grasshoppers.

“They do like that really hot and really dry condition but at the moment we do have cold soils and wet soils so at the moments our forecasts are quite minimal for the province but only time will tell,” Friesen said.

The ministry’s weekly crop report will start in the next two to three weeks.